Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: ccdjr106 on July 24, 2009, 06:48:20 PM
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hi I would like to buy this http://www.robotshop.us/ProductInfo.aspx?pc=RB-Dfr-16&cf=327054a1 (http://www.robotshop.us/ProductInfo.aspx?pc=RB-Dfr-16&cf=327054a1) and i have a homework board so what would be a good cheap duel motor controller that i could use
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as long as the motors do not draw more than 2A each you could use this http://www.robotshop.us/solarbotics-l298-motor-driver-kit-2.html
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is there any way to find out how much it draws before i buy it
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do you have a link to the motor?
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Looking more into this chassis, I found the manufacturers page, its originally in chinese, so heres a link to the english google translation:
http://74.125.159.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.dfrobot.com/%3Fproduct-271.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DDFRobot%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DFUk&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgPW4LdUuvWG8F39BgVploOQCuXZg
If you look at the pictures (espcially the back view) it looks like its using a GM2 or a GM8. You can find information about them here:
http://www.solarbotics.com/motors_accessories/2/
Anyway, I've used the solarbotics motor driver to run 4 of the GM8 motors just fine. I would recommend using it.
If you don't feel like soldering, you can buy basically the same motor driver, but assembled here:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/l298-dual-hbridge-motor-driver-p-284.html (although, they appear to be out of stock at the moment)
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of thanks but overall do you think that this chassi is good for doing the http://robofest.net/ game competition from 2009
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well, looking at that site I couldn't tell you. It depends on which things you plan on entering in. the GM series motors are fairly powerful, although not particularly fast.
Personally, for a competition I wouldn't even consider using a pre-built chassis like that. i would make my own, its easy enough to buy the motors, wheels, motor mounts and some plastic. its generally cheaper (the cost difference is made up in your own labor :P) and you know exactly what you're getting.
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well this is my first robot with the exception of the 50 $ robot which i failed at building the chassi and the circuit board :(
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it can be fairly simply to build a chassis.
if you're building your first chassis, I'll show you what i did to build a simply chassis for a robot.
First, i used the GM series gear motors, found here:
http://www.solarbotics.com/motors_accessories/gear_motors/
I like the GM8, it has decent speed and torque for smaller robots
next, you can buy mounting brackets for the GM8, found here:
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gmb28/
then, you need some sort of base, for my robot I used this plastic (the 3mm stuff), my robot had a bit of "sag" because it was wide, so you could easily double it up and make it stronger. Or you could just buy the 6mm stuff.
The plastic is really easy to work with, You can cut it with an xacto knife, or box cutters (just be careful doing this, it takes a long time, you have to repeatedly score the plastic until you cut the whole way through). It is also super easy to drill through.
The plastic can be found here:
http://www.solarbotics.com/construction_materials/
If you have any specific questions about how to build a chassis this way send me a message and i can try to answer them.
also, you can shop around for those parts, i know multiple sites carry those parts and i know some of them are cheaper than solarbotics. Plus, they have different mounting brackets for the GMs each company seems to have their own style of bracket, you can pick the one that suits your needs best.